Former California Insurance Agent Convicted After Stealing $3.7M
A former insurance agent plead guilty to stealing premium from a premium finance company.
Formerly licensed insurance agent Tonja Van Roy, 59, who currently resides in Las Vegas, but operated an insurance agency based in Northridge, California, pleaded guilty today to one federal count of wire fraud after a California Department of Insurance investigation revealed that she had stolen more than $3.7 million from a premium finance company named AFCO Credit Corporation.
The investigation was initiated after the CDI received a complaint from the company, AFCO, that Van Roy had committed insurance premium financing fraud on the company. The complaint alleged Van Roy submitted fictitious loan applications through AFCO’s loan system, which prompted AFCO to send premium funding payments to Van Roy.
The investigation reportedly revealed that from January of 2021 through December of 2023, Van Roy created and submitted dozens of fraudulent finance agreement forms to AFCO that deceived AFCO into believing Van Roy had sold insurance policies to her clients, and that those clients were applying for a loan from AFCO to pay the premiums for those policies. AFCO reportedly approved the loans noted on the fraudulent finance agreement forms, and then deposited the loan proceeds into Van Roy’s trust account via electronic funds transfer. AFCO believed Van Roy would forward the loan proceeds to the insurance carrier noted on the loan application.
Almost all of the information noted on the fraudulent finance agreement forms was false. For example, the forms contained fictitious insurance policy numbers as well as forged electronic signatures for fictitious insureds. In addition, the forms noted a total of only two different addresses for dozens of different insureds, and both of those addresses are for homes rented by Van Roy.
In total, Van Roy received roughly $3.7 million in stolen payments from AFCO as a result of all of the fraudulent finance agreement forms she submitted to AFCO. Van Roy reportedly then used the stolen money to purchase extravagant items for herself and her family members.
Since the AFCO loans required repayment within one year, some of the initial loans were repaid by Van Roy. However, the initial fraudulent loans were repaid with the funds Van Roy received from the subsequent fraudulent loans, similar to the pattern seen in a Ponzi scheme. After accounting for Van Roy’s repayment of some of the initial fraudulent loans, Van Roy currently owes AFCO approximately $1.8 million.
The case was prosecuted by the Major Frauds Section of the United States Attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Van Roy is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on March 31.